Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901–1953)

Ruth Crawford Seeger, née Porter, was born and raised in small towns in the Midwest and Florida to which her father, a Methodist minister, traveled for work. She began piano lessons at the age of 11 and decided to pursue formal music studies in order to work as a piano teacher. In 1921, she entered the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. After changing her focus first to becoming a concert pianist, she then chose composition. She is considered both as the most important American woman composer of the 20th century, and as a major figure in the study and preservation of American folk music. She was active as a composer primarily during the 1920s and 1930s and as a folk music specialist from the late 1930s until her death. She was a prominent member of a group of American composers known as the "ultra-moderns," and her work influenced later composers.